Join CDW at Cisco Live in Las Vegas
Here are a few highlights our Cisco team is particularly excited about, happening at this year’s event from June 4-8.
Cisco Live 2023 is less than a month away so now is definitely the time to start planning your schedule at this one-stop event, where you’ll discover and learn everything you want and need to know about Cisco technologies and product strategies.
Personally, I’ve gained so much knowledge during the many previous Cisco Lives I’ve attended. I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting with many CDW customers to share our experiences and insights. This year, my personal mission at Cisco Live will focus on learning as much as I can about the latest and greatest innovations in hybrid cloud, full stack observability, security architecture, DevOps and, of course, networking.
In addition, I will be scheduling meetings with various Cisco business units and catching up afterwards at Cisco Live On-Demand. I’m particularly looking forward to attending sessions hosted by our local CDW engineers, many of whom will be presenting for the first time this year.
And I’m also keen to connect with our CDW customers who will be attending Cisco Live – either to guide them in getting the most from their conference experience and/or to simply to meet up.
Below are some helpful tips as well as information about CDW Canada’s involvement during this fabulous four-day event in Las Vegas and a few highlights of things I’m particularly excited about this year.
Are you a NetVet?
The Cisco NetVet program honors Cisco Live customers and partners who are frequent attendees. Perhaps you qualify for NetVet status this year after having attended at least three previous Cisco Live events globally in the past five years. If you do, then you should know that NetVets enjoy many special benefits, including:
- Priority session scheduling
- A free e-book from Cisco Press
- Access to the NetVet Lounge where you can work, relax and connect with other NetVets
- A unique conference lanyard to showcase your NetVet status
Click here to learn more about the NetVet program.
Learning and development
Our CDW engineers will be in full force at Cisco Live, taking advantage of all 11 technology tracks including applications, certifications, cloud, collaboration, data centre, DevNet, emerging technologies, the Internet of Things (IoT), networking, security and service provider. Check out this link to learn more.
Discussion topics will range from technology introductions and strategies around their use to more advanced sessions that will get into the weeds of how to implement various Cisco solutions.
Seminars will provide four-hour deep dive lectures and demonstrations, targeted to those with at least an intermediate understanding of the technology being discussed. Here is a link to the Cisco Live session catalogue.
CDW will look to ensure customers have a great conference experience through Cisco “whisper suite” private sessions that we will attend with our customers. We’ll hear answers to product questions and discover the details of Cisco roadmaps and integrations, plus learn from specific Cisco technology use cases that will be shared. I’ll also connect with Canadian CDW customers at the end of the day at our hosted CDW dinners to discuss sessions attended and continue conversations with customers on projects they are working on.
We’ll reconnect in the morning and provide an online daily recap of announcements for that day. Of course, an ongoing CDW active chat on Webex will be available throughout the conference to keep you informed and engaged. If you are a CDW customer, a link to opt in to the Webex chat will be emailed to you.
As a Cisco Live Diamond Sponsor, CDW will host a booth at the conference, where we will showcase solutions for collaboration, security and hybrid cloud. Stop by to learn about:
- Collaboration Consultative Services to help you achieve strategic outcomes
- Successful migrations to Webex Cloud Calling
- Building a cybersecurity program with CDW and Cisco
- Unified hybrid cloud and on-ramping to the cloud
- How to manage private and public cloud workloads in the same way
- Network analytics and the road to NetOps 2.0
CDW will also be leading seminars and presenting on topics including:
Cybersecurity frameworks: Learn from CDW security experts how to build a cybersecurity framework. We’ll offer a roadmap on how to protect your organization and provide a walk-through of how CDW and Cisco can help you create a security program to defend against the latest security threats. We’ll also show you how CDW and Cisco can help address controls within popular frameworks such as the CIS Top Security Controls.
Securing your IoT: The increasing prevalence of IoT devices creates new business opportunities, but also poses security challenges. Hear from CDW experts about the potential risks associated with IoT systems and devices and learn the strategies and best practices to mitigate those risks. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of the critical security considerations when designing and deploying IoT solutions.
CDW will also host a customer “happy hour” on Monday, June 5, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., where you can meet some of our U.S. technical leaders.
Cisco Advisory Council
This year, CDW will be represented by a member of our engineering team during a Cisco Certified Internetworking Engineer (CCIE) Advisory Council meeting happening at Cisco Live.
The Advisory Council is composed of certified senior technical professionals from among Cisco’s top enterprise, service provider and channel partners like CDW. The group will meet in person with Cisco’s top leadership and share with them recommendations on Cisco learning as well as offer feedback on the company’s product roadmap and strategies.
IT Leadership Track
This four-day program features a custom-curated agenda focusing on various Cisco-technology-related topics and themes and is delivered in a format that strongly encourages discussion and interaction. There will also be exclusive sessions presented by Cisco’s senior executives and industry thought-leaders. You can check out the full IT Leadership Track agenda here.
Here’s hoping you can make it to Cisco Live in Las Vegas from June 4-8. I look forward to speaking with as many CDW Canada customers as I can. Please feel free to follow me on LinkedIn to see my updates throughout the conference and connect with CDW Canada for more news on our other upcoming events.
About the Author
Puneet Duggal is the Cisco Acceleration Lead at CDW Canada. He serves as a technical advisor to the Director of Solutions and partner management organizations to help create additional Cisco capabilities.